Dissidia: Final Fantasy Review Page 2

09 Sep 2009 at 17:10:31 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (PSP)

Traditional fighting game mechanics are done away with. You're still beating the crap out of another person, but... well. You've got three meters to keep track of: HP, Bravery, and EX. HP is the simplest; this represents your health, and when it bottoms out, you lose. Bravery shows how much damage your next HP attack will inflict. EX is your super meter – when full, it allows you to temporarily switch into your character's alternate form, powering them up and allowing you to perform their supermoves.

To this end, you have two different types of attack. HP attacks inflict damage on your opponent's HP, but these temporarily expend all of your Bravery so you'll need to let it charge up again before you can launch a second big attack. Bravery attacks are normally quicker, and leech Bravery from your opponents, lowering theirs and raising yours. These, in turn, are divided into aerial and ground attacks, as characters can sail through the air as though they were in a Wuxia flick.

Which sounds fairly complicated, but it's all introduced in a fairly simple way. Initially, you've really only got a smattering of attacks available, and you just need to remember to do some Bravery attacks to build up your power, and then an HP attack or two to kill your opponent. The concepts of different attacks, dodging, EX attacks, break status, summons, air-dashes, wall rushes, how to recharge Bravery quickly and everything else are introduced slowly as the game goes on. Again, as complicated as that sounds, it's all remarkably simple when it's introduced as slowly and as carefully as it is, and altogether it creates a simple system which still contains plenty of depth.

And what a beautiful system it is, with every character feeling genuinely different. Where Onion Knight relies on speed and Exdeath on counters, Terra works well at range, the Emperor sets traps, Golbez chains attacks, and Cloud hits things. If it's too easy, then the level discrepancies pretty much guarantee you can always find something to your taste. Difficult as it is, taking on an opponent 20 levels above you and knowing they can finish you in a single blow is fun, but then so are regular battles. You remember the ending fight in Advent Children, with the participants whirling around in the sky, hovering momentarily, and then dashing together to clash swords, with the scenery ripping apart around them? It's the videogame representation of that (complete with destructible scenery) only with attack names flashing up.

Which brings us to a point: if you don't know that scene, or you aren't a Final Fantasy fan, this may not be as wonderful a game for you as it is for me. While there are some attempts made to explain things it's hard to get across twenty game-spanning character arcs in a few sentences, so the references to past games and the regular cutscenes will likely sail over the heads of those unfamiliar with the source material. Furthermore, those who wish to get to grips with said source material having played Dissidia are going to have to cope with the spoilers for every game from I through X casually strewn throughout Dissidia. Don't get me wrong: there's still a bloody good fighting game in there, but it's not quite going to stack up to the Guilty Gears and Street Fighters of the world and it's unlikely you'll have the same joyous reaction to seeing all of the familiar characters and all of the attacks executed in fluid action as I do, which will bring it down a peg or two.

So yeah, it's fan-service, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is exactly what I've wanted from a Final Fantasy fighting game ever since I dreamed of the concept as a youngster. The plot's a tad trite and it rehashes a lot of ground covered in each individual game, but some may appreciate the nostalgia. The fighting, however, is slick, fluid, and faithful, and there's a staggering amount of unlockables and post-story mode gameplay. The familiar music is all there. Omnislash is blow-for-blow how it was in FF7. Holy is a set of white balls spiralling through the air. Sephiroth never, ever shuts up about puppets, and Tidus repeatedly makes it clear that this is his story. The in-game help screens reference old characters and translation mistakes. There's even a Command mode that lets you control the action through the old-school menu systems, and best of all you can kill Squall repeatedly. What's not to love?

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